Tucker Carlson Foments Fear Of Domestic Jihadists

In its deck of propaganda cards, one of Fox News' strong suits is the fear factor which, in creating fear of "the other," further divides the country into a virtuous "us" who are being besieged by the evil and very scary "them." Even more than the fear of those dirty, brown people who are swarming across the border to take over America, Fox frequently promotes the fear of radical Islamists who are a danger to the homeland - a theme recently pimped by Martha MacCallum and the Outnumbered gang. So it's not surprising that Fox & Friends week-end host, Tucker Carlson used the gruesome Oklahoma beheading to keep fear alive and, in the process, suggest that American Muslims do something about their scary soul-brothers. Funny, the majority of school shooters are white and I don't think that Tucker wants white people to do anything about that.....

At the start of yesterday's piece, Carlson cited the deaths of three Americans who were killed while fighting for ISIS as an example of how a "disturbing trend of Americans radicalizing is rearing its head again as an Oklahoma man beheads his former co-worker after reportedly trying to convert others to Islam to which he recently converted." While he spoke a photo, of the accused Oklahoma beheader took up the entire screen. (Nice morphing of the Fox scary black man meme with the scary jihadist meme.) He asked what's "causing this radicalization here in America and should the Muslim community be doing something to stop it, can they." He introduced his guest Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a pro-Israel Muslim who appeared on Megyn Kelly's show to help Kelly bash CAIR for being intolerant towards an anti-Islamic movie.

Ahmed said that the problem of radicalization has a number of causes including social media and American prisons. Carlson interjected "clearly." After she noted that forcible conversion is not a "true practice of Islam," Carlson cited the ISIS beheading video as asked what kind of person would want to affiliate with the group. As she spoke about those who are attracted to radical Islam, a photo of Steven Sotloff was shown as he was about to be beheaded. The chyron, under the photo which morphed into a photo of the man charged in the Oklahoma beheading, Alton Nolen, reinforced Fox's message that Nolen is connected to radical Islam: "Terror Influence, Reportedly Tried to Convert Others to Islam."

Carlson got to the heart of the Fox propaganda with his question of how mosques should respond. The chyron played the fear card: "Radical Impact, Westerners Continue Converting to Islam." (Of course not all converts are radical jihadists but who needs silly facts?) Ahmed responded that Muslims need to "reassure" Americans that radical beliefs are not part of the Muslim mainstream. In further explaining the reasons for radicalization, she spoke of how it is appealing to those who are disenfranchised especially those in prisons who are looking for "separatist" and anti-American ideology."

While the conversation wasn't about Nolen, the chyron reminded the audience that he is a scary jihadist (even though that has not been established): "Terror Ties: Suspect Posted Anti-US Rhetoric on Facebook." (Meanwhile, Fox had no problem with Cliven Bundy gang's anti-Americanism which, one assumes, was all over Facebook.) She concluded the segment by saying that "Muslims have a role, too, by collaborating with authorities, by reassuring their neighbors, by being good community citizens, so that there is confidence restored that the vast majority of Muslims reject this totally and will participate in safeguarding our whole community."

There was a strange bifurcation to this piece. While Dr. Ahmed's commentary was fairly straightforward, the Fox & Friends message and visuals were clearly agenda driven. But what made it even more reprehensible was that Tucker Carlson exploited a tragedy to promote propaganda and foment fear. Then again, with Fox, what else is new!